Well, as a writer, Act I is get your hero up a tree. Act II is throw rocks at your hero. At the end of Act II, a rock hits your hero in the face and breaks his nose. Act III your hero gets down from the tree. As they are using the Wrathgate and Arthas for the main storyline, it's safe to assume that the other act breaks will relate to that.

Act III would be Icecrown Citadel itself.

Act II - that's going on now in terms of story progression. The Cathedral of Darkness questline is probably near the end of the rising action of the main narrative. Act II normally ends with some major event that makes Act III inevitable and the only possible resolution to the problem. You're either out of options (Independence Day), or your adversary is clearly identified and waiting (action movies) or you need to get back together with the person you just broke up with (any romantic comedy).

The Titan and Old God stuff isn't really part of the same plotline. I doubt that the Titans are going to show up before Arthas is confronted. Yogg-Saron might, as he's much more closely tied to the Lich King.

The basic structural assumption is that that Act II is going to end in some sort of Arthas atrocity against the meatbags swarming into Icecrown Glacier that causes a real "darkest hour." That probably has nothing to do with Uldurr. It would also be a real structural mess to raise Yogg-Saron to an "A" (main) plotline before resolving Arthas. I can't really see them doing a 180 on all the marketing and build-up and having Yogg-Saron bushwhack Arthas at the end of an Act II.

What I found interesting was the part about the Dragonflights.
Metzen is clearly hinting that everything that's been going on with the five flights isn't just a series of seperate events.

Now, the question is, who's behind it? My first instinct is, of course, the Old Gods. Which would show them as even more cunning then we realized, and we already know far more about them than any in-game character. If this is true, then the Old Gods certainly are working with a Bigger Picture in mind, bigger than any of us even considered.

Then there's the possibility that it's not the Old Gods, which really only leaves Sargeras. And while he certainly has the motivation (I'm sure he remembers the Dragons from the War of the Ancients), I have a little trouble seeing him as subtle and manipulative enough for this.

That would be right up our good ol' friend Kil'jaeden's alley, though.

Perhaps Azshara? She does seem like the manipulative type, I guess the question would be does she have the power to manipulate an Aspect. It would be an interesting way to segue from Northrend into a maelstrom expansion.

Also one thing that has been nagging at the back of my mind that could point to the maelstrom next... they mentioned that they were going to prevent water from dismounting you and that your land mount would just swim. This seemed like an odd change to make right now since there really isn't that much water in Northrend.

From a meta-plot standpoint, it stands to reason that if the Blizzard team is going to array the troubles of the Dragonflights as something that was planned and coordinated, it's the Old Gods pulling the strings. Considering that the whole thing started with Neltharion's corruption - which is attributed to the Old Gods - I expect we'll see some stories or hints of their involvement in Nozdormu's absence, Malygos' insanity, and Ysera's Nightmare. Even if there are plot aspects that point out things otherwise, I wouldn't hold on to them too tightly, since Blizzard has been known to crush a few plot points into order to retcon things into something that seems smoother.

Although it does make me wonder if there's something in store for Alexstraza, or if the possible conspiracy was fine with just isolating the Red Flight instead of neutralizing them.

Azshara and the Tomb of Sargeras would go hand in hand very well. Both conveniently in the Maelstrom. What better place to source power than the tombs energy, or even an avatar of Sargeras himself whos promising her untold power/revenge for her allegiance? (In exchange for meddling with the Aspects, of course). A Sargeras avatar / Azshara alliance would be quite similar to Kil'jaeden/Kael'thas, but still certainly has potential.

I'm beginning to think that we are entering a scenario where the aspects are no longer a net benefit to Azeroth as a whole. That is that they've become so consumed with their own problems and the subsequently created problems that they are no longer performing the tasks they were each meant for. Either they succumb to corruption or are so lost from their path that they no longer know what their purpose is.

The greens are busy fighting an evil that is taking over what they are and turning their own against them.
The blues have declared war on us.
The bronzes are dealing with a flight that has abilities amazingly akin to their own.
The reds are busy fighting both the blues due to an alliance with us and the blacks who are almost all exclusively evil.

If this is correct then I imagine then that the players will have to be the instrument of the aspect's destruction in an attempt to restore balance akin to that of the Legacy of Kain series.


Another possibility is rather than the destruction, possible purification and/or redemption. However, I see the destruction option as more viable as it would expose Azeroth to other evils attacking or exploiting us thus creating a whole new source of content and plot for players to deal with.

We've already killed one aspect, now I would like to know the consequences of such an action.

Ya there is a lot of tie-ins ther but theres also a few that aren't a huge leap too. Malygos went insane after he tried to stop Neltharion and had his flight nearly wiped out which could have been attributed to the Old Gods. The red flight was also imprisoned and weakened by the demon soul. Since we know that the Old Gods had a hand in the inception and possibly creation of the Demon/Dragon Soul it could easily come out that it was a frostmourne-esque corrupting device that the Old Gods could speak through and continue pursuing their agenda against the dragons. It would also make sense that as the stewards of the world they would also be responsible for making sure the Old Gods were kept locked away. And if we continue killing off dragons and aspects then that might be a way the Old Gods escape and we need to kill them.

I'm not sure if you're entirely correct about the green and blue aspects, though.

Since it's not totally clear what the relationship between the Emerald Dream and the real world is, I'm not really sure that we can say that the green's fighting the nightmare is straying from their purpose. And all we've really learned from Wrath so far is that it's really green.

As far as the blues are concerned, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be the entire blue dragonflight(as most of the NPC's seem to make it out as) or just a smaller subset of Malygos' most trusted underlings. It seems very strange that Kalecgos and Tyrygosa have not appeared yet, especially considering that Tyri was the one that essentially "woke up" Malygos, and Kalec's involvement with the mortal races at the Sunwell.

It's possible that the lighting of the Sunwell was the reason that Malygos lost it and started the entire war. However, I think the Sunwell Plateau's ending event implies that the new Sunwell is a fountain of Holy Light, not just magic.

Sargeras certainly fits, as that was the manner of his own fall from grace. It would have a certain elan to use the method which ensnared him to achieve his ultimate victory over Azeroth. I'm more excited about the future direction of the lore with these little teasers about life after Wrath.

Since Wrath confirms that Nathrezim are harder to kill than cockroaches, I wouldn't be surprised if Tichondrius showed-up between now and a Broken Isles expansion. He's a close second to Sargeras as the source of the "distant voice" from the Battle for the Undercity."

Also, Ulduar could be fairly easily included in the main Icecrown raid storyline without providing too much back-story (or significant retconning). I seem to remember reading a preview of Wrath about the Lich King having enemies that his mindless undead minions couldn't handle. By implication, the assistance of the players would be required, but not necessarily a good thing.

Yogg Saron is defeated, leaving a lootable corpse/chest.
The Lich King yells: I was just getting around to that. Thanks for the Old God corpse, suckers!
The Scourge now has something with a thousand maws. And tentacles. Lots of tentacles.

The trash and bosses of just about every instance cleared by player could be similarly reanimated into service of the Lich King. Or maybe, on some level, that's what's been happening all along and we call it "replay value." For the moment, this could explain weekly Naxx clears (on an RP server at least); someone clearly forgot to loot that phylactery from KT.

Maybe his nefarious plot to dominate Azeroth is somehow related to hijacking Raid ID's?